About the Luminous landscape

The author of this site isMichael Reichmann— a widely published photographer, author, and a photographic educator for much of the past 35 years.

This Site’s Purpose

This web site has one primary goal — to provide photographers with a place where they can immerse themselves in the art and technology of photography. It consists of some 1,500 pages of tutorials, equipment tests, location reports, technical papers and portfolios, as well as regular columns by well respected and knowledgeable authors.

This is a completely non-commercial site. No sponsors — no hidden relationships. Every product tested and reviewed has either been purchased by us or has been loaned by the manufacturer for review with no strings attached.

I review what interests me and what fits into my photographic arsenal. If I haven’t reviewed something that you’re interested in it’s because either I haven’t gotten to it yet, I don’t need it, or I don’t like it.

Am I biased? You bet! I have strong feelings about photography and photographic equipment. But, these biases have their basis in some 35+ years of involvement in photography.

Regarding Digital Imaging

After some 30 years using, writing about and teaching traditional B&W and colour darkroom techniques, in the mid-90s I made the transition to the desktop darkroom. I found that a high quality film scanner, computer,Photoshopand inkjet printer allows me to produce much higher quality prints for sale and exhibition than could ever be produced in the chemical darkroom. Versatility, flexibility and freedom from the dark, smelly and sometimes toxic confines of the chemical darkroom were other factors.

Was this completely true in 1995? No, but I saw the potential. As the years passed the rate of progress in digital image processing has been astonishing and now, in the early 2000s, it most definitely is the case.

I still mostly shoot film though — usually medium format for landscape and nature work. I use 35mm for wildlife and street and travel photography. I greatly enjoy using digital SLRs but still find that medium format film has the edge in image quality, though digital is closing in fast.

The Luminous Landscape Video Journal

In the summer of 2001, along with professional film and video maker Chris Sanderson, I began publication ofThe Luminous Landscape Video Journal. Published every three months, the Journal is the world’s only DVD-based "video magazine". Each issue contains up to 90 minutes of product reviews, tutorials, travel segments and interviews with famous photographers. The DVD will play on vurtually every PC, Mac or set-top DVD player — anywhere in the world.

If you are passionate about photography then I urge you tofind out moreabout this exciting, entertaining and valuable photographic resource.

Viewing This Site

This site, and in particular the larger linked photographs, will bebestdisplayed on a Cable or DSL connection with a 1280 X 1024, 24 bit display. On a 1024 X 768 (XGA) screen some of the larger photographs will need to be scrolled. Otherwise the site will display acceptably on a 800 X 600 (SVGA) 16 bit screen. Most images on the site are small enough to load reasonably quickly, even on a slow web connection. The larger linked images will of course display slowly on a slow dial-up connection.

Most outlined photographs are linked to larger, full-screen versions. This is one of the only fine-art photography sites on the web where photographs may be viewed at more than postage stamp size.

After viewing a large photograph return to the section that you have been reading by using your browser’sBACKbutton. This is because the smaller images sometimes appear in several different places on the site but are all linked to thesamelarge version.

About Browsers, Fonts and Colours

The site’s colours and fonts have been carefully checked on both PCs and Macs, and display well on both. Some users may find though that some of the site’s fonts and colours do not display satisfactorily in their browser. Please be aware that by changing settings in your browser you can change things like fonts sizes and colours to your personal preference. Each browser, and browser version, does this differently, but theOptionssetting shouldn’t be too hard to find.

"Available" and "Visited" link colour is also a user definable parameter.

Site Redesign

After three years of tremendous growth, by the Summer of 2002 this site was desperately in need of a redesign. It had grown from a spot where I could reprint some of the articles and reviews that I had written for various photographic magazines over the years, to become a full-fledged magazine in its own right.

At that point the site hade grown to more than 5,000 files and nearly 1,500 articles. Finding specific content was a challenge, even for me. Also, the "look" had become a bit stale and it was time for a face-lift.

I secured the services of web site designerNeil Cowley, and the current site design is the result. Neil is talented photographer as well as web designer, and so he was sensitive to the concerns that I had about both ease of navigation as well as thelook and feelof the site.

If you are a photographer or other visual arts professional looking for a site designer I can highly recommend Neil.

Mac Users

Mac users should note that though I mostly do myPhotoshopwork on a Mac, this site is maintained with a PC and therefore for the photographs to display with the proper contrast and brightness you should adjust your display to gamma 2.2 rather than gamma 1.8.

AOL Alert

Some readers connecting viaAOLhave complained of poor image quality when using the AOL web browser. This is caused by a setting called "compress images" in the browser that causes it to corrupt pictures in the interest of faster transmission. You should turn this settingOFFwhen viewing this site.

To solve this problem open your "My AOL" preferences screen on the toolbar. Click on the WWW icon and selected the "Web Graphics" tab and uncheck "Compressed Graphics". Click on the Apply button.

Calibrating your Monitor

To enjoy the images on this site use the wedge below to adjust your monitor’s brightness and contrast controls so that each of the 12 steps — from white to black — is distinctly visible. (This is not possible on a 16 colour low-res screen.)

If you do any digital image processing and would like to learn more about how to properly calibrate your whole system, from scanner to printer, you should read the article onColour System Calibration.

Spelling

Spelling? Just a note that as a Canadian I learned to spell using British practice; i.e.colourrather thancolor. In some cases though I use the American norm of style or expression — simply because it seems more natural. I suppose that makes this a transatlantic site — which is what Canada is all about. Eh?

Print Sales

All images displayed on these pages are now available for sale as archival quality fine-art prints. For details and pricing information please clickHERE.

Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.

Michael Reichmann is the founder of the Luminous Landscape. Since its inception in 1999 LuLa has become the world's largest site devoted to the art, craft, and technology of photography. Each month more than one million people from every country on the globe visit LuLa.